NATHANIEL MATA | STAFF WRITER
PHARR — PSJA North wide receiver Arturo Beltran is blonde. His platinum hair is no fashion statement; instead, it’s a colorful badge of honor to signify that the Raiders are back in the postseason after a two-year absence.
He’s one of many football players roaming the halls on the Pharr campus with bright dyed hair to remind the student body North is still alive.
The Raiders will host Laredo United South at 5 p.m. Saturday at PSJA Stadium.
“It feels good because when we were sophomores and freshmen we wanted to be in the playoffs. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen our time when we were freshmen, sophomores or juniors,” Beltran said. “Now, it’s our senior season and it means a lot because it’s our year, the 2019 year. We came a long way since the cellar and since day one freshman year.”
After a few seconds of talking to Beltran, it’s almost hard to picture him as an intense competitor.
At 6-foot-1, the size is there, but he’s soft-spoken and his smile never seems to leave his face. But when the lights are on during game night, he puts on his silver and black No. 3 and he transforms into ‘Turi,’ which is what his teammates call him.
Turi is anything but soft on the field. The senior accounted for 21 of the Raiders 41 touchdowns in 2018 to finally fulfill his potential in Marcus Kaufmann’s offense.
“Ever since I came to Raiders, I always knew that my name was going to be up there and my face was going to be out there exposed,” Beltran said. “It was just patience from sophomore year I wasn’t really playing that much and junior year I didn’t really get the ball that much. But senior year: last time, best time. I’m glad I’m able to compete with the best. It all starts with summer workouts, being here early and playing with my brothers.”
Twelve of his scores came on the ground and another eight came receiving passes. One of his scores came on special teams as he jumped on a muffed punt in the end zone.
The key to unlocking the player that can seemingly do it all for North is not forcing him. With the addition of quarterback Iziaah Rangel, who transferred from Edinburg North and Isaac Gonzalez who transitioned from middle school to high school, the Raiders have become multi-dimensional.
Rangel rushed for 1,198 yards to lead the team, Gonzalez added 793 on the ground. In the passing game, Beltran led the team with 634 receiving yards but four of his teammates also had more than 100 yards.
Kaufmann has enjoyed watching Beltran come out of his shell off the field and become explosive on the field.
“He was a real quiet kid when I got here, real to himself, real shy but now he’s the homecoming king for the school,” Kaufmann said. “He’s scoring touchdowns, smiling, running around having a blast and everyone’s following him. He’s a great kid, he’s fun to watch.”
The turnaround from last year’s 2-8 season couldn’t have been complete without the defense clamping down. Fellow senior Ryan Reyna has been an anchor on that side of the ball.
Multiple Raiders stand out as hard hitters and aggressive ball pursuers, but Kaufmann identified Reyna as their leader.
“With the defense, we talk about 11 hats to the football, you hear them yelling ‘bang, bang’ cause those are the shots we’re going to take on people,” Kaufmann said. “Ryan has pretty much been the headhunter for that entire group. He’s not the fastest guy, but he plays fast on the field. He’s not afraid of anything and the kids kind of feed off of that.”
Reyna has 112 tackles (37 solos) this season, behind only Seven Sanchez. He also had a pair of sacks, an interception and a forced fumble.
In the final game of the season, PSJA North surpassed La Joya High as 30-6A’s best defense in terms of yards allowed. (270.9 per game) after the Coyotes held the position all year.
“When we see yards coming up on us we don’t like that so we want to meet the contact, we want to drive them back, make their heads pop up,” Reyna said. “When we go back and watch film we get hyped when we see that.”
Seven Sanchez led the team with 154 tackles (62), three forced fumbles and two recovered. Defensive lineman Aaron Alvarez had 16 sacks.
“He’s very special, we’ve been playing together since freshman year, he’s been working and grinding ever since then,” Reyna said of Beltran. “To see (the offense) when I’m on the sidelines it makes us on defense want to work hard for our offense. As soon as they come back in we want to show them you help us out, we’ll help you out. We work together.”
Ryan’s older brother Randy was the Raiders quarterback until he graduated; now Ryan is carrying the flame and passing tradition to his non-blood ‘blackshirt’ brothers.
“It means a lot to all of us because we started a tradition to be in the playoffs every year,” Reyna said. “We want the older ones to build up this bond we have.”